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Monday, September 26, 2016

Travel Tips and the Parable of the Moto

The best time to travel to Cambodia would
be when rainy season ends, and it's cooler. So, like maybe November-January. February it starts to get hot again, but there's no rain to ruin the
trip and probably less tourists. If they want to go to other places besides Angkor Wat, then any of those months is good. The only tourist-infested place is
really Seam Reap.

The lesson with our two new investigators went
super well. They committed to a baptismal date of the 22 of October. So now we
have four people scheduled for that day. Hopefully, I'll be able to see them
through to the end. They both read the scriptures, prayed, and came to church
again. It's going well.

A spiritual experience: I was
teaching someone about repentance, and I felt like I
should share about an experience that I had. This experience was easily
relatable for a Khmae. I added in some minor details for relating it
to repentance.

When I was in high school, I
wanted a moto (if you still don't know what a moto is, it's what we would call a
scooter, motorcycle, or moped all squished into one word), so I asked my mom for
a moto. She said, "No," the first time. Then I kept asking her and eventually she
agreed. Then when we went to buy the moto, my mom wanted to put it in the back
of the truck, but I begged her to ride it home. She reluctantly agreed. Then on
the way home I wiped out. Since my mom was in front of me, she didn't see. I
could have run away, so that she wouldn't get mad, or I could continue to go home
and accept what I had done whatever the consequences. So I went home and when I
told my mom I wiped out, she wasn't mad at me for breaking off the mirror and
scraping up the side of the brand new moto, but she was merciful and helped me
clean up the blood off my clothes. I related this to repentance. When we fail to do
what Jesus has directed us, some people run away forever, fearing
repentance. However, if they would just repent, they would see that repentance is
a very healing experience. Jesus Christ is full of compassion towards all
of us. (This story probably didn't have too huge of an effect on whoever I was teaching,
but it was cool to 1) see that yes, when I repent it's only for the benefit of
me; God does not see it fit to brutally punish us for every small mistake; He
is willing to work with us and knows our mistakes; and 2) see, as I always have,
that my mother is a very Christlike person. Shout out, Mama.

Alright, I'm sure Sis Spencer
sent you some pictures.[Editor's note: Yes! She did and I'm so thankful.]

I love you mom!

Elder Hall

[From Bro. Hall: "In my scripture study this week I read in Alma
32 about the missionary efforts of Alma, Ammon and other church leaders.
Verse 2 highlights that the missionaries began to have "success
among the poor class of people." In this case it was a group of
people who were humbled by their experiences. This is a metaphor for us
personally, I believe, as well. Individually, we have humbling
experiences that open us up to the influence of the spirit. I have
noticed that people are open to the doctrine of the gospel when they have
trials such as a death in the family or struggles with addiction."]

It's interesting in Cambodia. What you said about
the poor people. Most poor people are just as prideful as the rich people here
in Cambodia. The humbling factor, I believe, is those who are rejected of their
community. The villages in Cambodia are so tightly knit together that a non-Christian who has a close group of friends would never even dare talk to
missionaries for more than a minute, because they know that if their neighbor
sees it, they'll never hear the end of it. Satan does good work here (or bad i
mean). BUT when somebody becomes rejected in their particular friend group,
maybe because of disputes, or maybe because they don't like the way their
friends are going, or any number of reasons, those are the people that are
humbled sufficiently to receive the gospel.